We never had Paris
by njayne58
Summary: Tony's past comes back to bite him.
1. Chapter 1

I of course do not have any ownership of these characters and am grateful to Mr. B for creating them.

We never had Paris

The bullpen was quiet. Most of the other agents had gone home, but Team Gibbs was finishing up reports on the arrest of a navy lieutenant who had been smuggling drugs. Gibbs was up in MTAC bringing the director up to date on the arrest. McGee had put his report on Tony's desk and gone down to visit Abby in the lab. Tony had read through it and was going to put it on Gibbs' desk when he noticed Ziva reading a magazine.

"All done with your paperwork?" he asked.

She looked over the top of the magazine. "Have you ever been to Paris, Tony?"

He stood up and went to her desk."Paris, sure, two years ago I went to a security conference. Why do you ask?"She turned the magazine towards him so he could see the picture on the page. "Wow, that's some view." he said.

The beautiful Israeli smiled at him, "It looks like you, Tony."

"Uh, you're nuts. That guy's a blonde. What kind of magazine is that anyway?" he tried to sound carefree.

She smirked at him. "It's an art magazine." This is a reproduction of a painting by the French artist Pierre Belmar. It's called "Young Apollo". There's going to be a retrospective of his work at the Lorraine Gallery here in Washington"

Tony grabbed the magazine away from her. He read the caption. "Oh, it says here the model is Dino Paddington. I think he may be a cousin of mine--my mother's older brother's youngest son or her younger brother's oldest. His name was David Norris Paddington. DiNO--David Norris. I guess there could be a family resemblance."

"Well, you are certainly hairier than this portrait." smiled Ziva. She stowed the magazine in her desk drawer, grabbed her bag and said, "Tell Gibbs I have left." With that she headed for the elevator.

As soon as she was gone, Tony reached into her desk to grab the magazine. He looked at the picture again. "Shit," he he sad out loud." I knew this might come back and bite me in the rear"

"Rear is right," he heard a voice behind him.

"Gibbs..." Tony closed the magazine.

"Already saw it, Tony. What's the story behind the behind shot there?"

"Gibbs, this is embarrassing"

"Bare ass for sure." Gibbs took the magazine from Tony and opened to the page where the portrait of the young Greek god looking back over his shoulder was found." Tell me about it."

Tony knew he was going to have to tell the story. "OK," he began. "Summer between freshman and sophomore year, I was desperate. I had enough scholarship to cover tuition, dorm and books, but that was it. I needed clothes, money for food...I didn't want everyone to know my family had cut me off. So a buddy of mine got me a job in New York, parking cars at a big hotel. Tips were great. I could sleep in the hotel dorm. I worked from five in the afternoon till three in the morning. I loved it.

I got to drive some great cars--Mercedes, BMW and once a vintage Corvette. One night in June, I brought a car back to a woman. It was a Cadillac--a 1957-- it was a sweet car. She gave me a fifty for a tip, but as I closed her door, she grabbed my wrist. She asked if I had ever done any modeling. I told her no, but she gave me her card and told me to come to her office the next morning. She could put some work my way.

So, I got up and went there the next day. She took me back to a workroom. A couple of guys and she walked all around me. She asked me to walk back and forth in the room. They took a couple of face shots. After they talked a while, she told me she could get me some work on the runway for an up and coming designer. It would pay a couple grand for a day's work. The two guys spent an hour or so showing me how to walk like a model and then they started critiquing my look. They decided I should go blond. Next thing I knew, I was getting my hair dyed, my eyebrows waxed--have to admit, I kind of enjoyed it. I had never had anybody fuss over me before. I also had never had another man make a pass at me before, but I didn't freak out. Once he knew I wasn't interested, he was fine.

So next day, I met them at a warehouse. There were some other models there. They were pretty nice to me. I was given five suits to wear. The runway show went pretty well--at least, I didn't fall down. Marta, that was the name of the model agent, booked me a couple of other shows. I was making big money--well big to me for just wearing beautiful clothes and walking around.

The next week she asked if I would like to make more money--in Paris. I told her as long as I was back in time for basketball practice to start in August, I would be glad to go.

Paris was great. I did some shows, met some girls, and had a great time. I made enough in two weeks to carry me through the next two years of school. Then Marta told me that this artist was interested in having me model for a series of mythological illustrations he was doing. He was going to pay me more to model for him than I had already made. So why not?

I spent a couple of days standing around in my birthday suit while this old French guy made sketches. I didn't mind. There were three girls there too. They were going to be the Three Graces. One of them, Sonia, was from Italy. We spoke Italian to each other just to tease the other girls. He sketched me as this one--the Apollo and then had Sonia and I pose as Hero and Leander.

So, there I was in Paris, with a beautiful girl. I was making big money for nothing but letting some painter sketch me. Do you think any one else could recognize me from this painting? God, I won't be able to show my face…."

Gibbs interrupted, "It's not your face people will remember."

"Thanks, boss. That really helps."

Gibbs smirked, "Is there more"

"Well" said Tony looking down at his feet, "Yeah--I did a photo shoot for this underwear company. It was strictly for the European market, but I would hate to see those come out over here. But, my face wasn't in most of those shots."

"Then I don't think you need to worry."

Two days later, Ziva came into the bullpen and slapped a newspaper down on Tony's desk. Therein the art section was the Apollo. "I googled your cousin, Tony. There is no cousin"

Tony jumped from his desk and dragged Ziva into a conference room. "Do you think any one else will recognize this picture as me?" he asked desperately.

"So, you admit it was you?" Ziva laughed.

"I needed the money and it's not porn." he said lowly.

"No, it's not. And you have changed a lot since this picture. I don't think anyone else will make the connection. How many people have seen the dimple in your cheek?" she teased.

He sighed, "That's true....one butt looks pretty much like another."Ziva arched her eyebrow," That's not true, but you are a little more hirsute than this picture, so I doubt anyone will make the connection."

For the next day or two, Tony was nervous and watched people's faces as they came and went. No one seemed to be paying any unusual attention to him, so he relaxed.

Ziva continued to give him an arch look and pat his behind when she thought no one was looking.


	2. Chapter 2

Part Two

**At the museum**

The Lorraine Gallery was a small, but chic art gallery given to showing cutting edge art, but the owner had been a friend of Pierre Belmar for years. He had offered to show a retrospective of his friend's work to coincide with a re-issue of a book of prints from his famous mythological series. The crowds had been thin until one of the more influential magazines had picked up the story and reprinted a couple of the pictures.

It was late afternoon on the last day of the showing, when the owner saw a handsome man in his thirties enter the gallery. He was wearing sunglasses and looked extremely nervous. He picked up a catalog and, ignoring most of the paintings, went straight to the "Young Apollo."

It had been one of the most popular of the paintings, and prints had sold out in a week. There were even t-shirts made. The visitor stood in front of the painting, unconsciously echoing the pose with his weight on his right leg and the left knee slightly bent. He put his sunglasses on top of his head.

When the man looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was watching him, the gallery owner was stunned. The profile was the same as the painting. But Dino, the model, was supposed to have disappeared in Paris after that one short summer.

The owner went quickly to one of the offices. "Pierre, come here." The elderly painter had been checking some of the proofs for the upcoming book.

He came into the gallery and watched the visitor. Almost twenty years had passed since he had painted this picture, but he recognized the curve of the skull and the set of the ears. "Dino?" he whispered.

The visitor gave no sign of having heard him, so he walked up behind him. "Dino"

The visitor turned to face him. "It is you," said Pierre. "I heard you had died…you disappeared and no one knew where you had gone."

Tony sighed, "I came back home. I went to college. I used the money I made that summer to finish school. I never dreamed this would cross the Atlantic."

The old man tried to embrace his erstwhile model, but Tony backed away. "I'm a government employee. This could really be embarrassing for me.

The painter looked at him carefully, "You have changed. You are no longer a young Apollo. If I was to paint you now, I think Neptune. The green eyes remind me of the sea." As he spoke, the painter began sketching in his notebook. "But, the look you are giving me makes me think more of Pluto, god of the dead."

"You will be meeting the god of the dead before I pose for any more pictures." said Tony.

The painter replied, "When the book comes out, the Hero and Leander will be included. I think that might be more of a threat--you, lying dead, in your love's arms. We're also including some sketches that weren't published before."

Tony grimaced nervously, "Sketches…"

"And photographs I took for study." The artist waved Tony around a corner, and there were the photographs. There were two of him with Sonia in almost pornographic poses and one of him alone smiling at the camera. He had been looking at Sonia and the smile was nearly a leer.

"Damn," said Tony. "These are going to be in the book? You can't. I never signed anything for permission for these pictures. And I won't. I…"

The artist interrupted, "You and Sonia and the other models all signed release forms."

Tony was worried. Most of his friends and co-workers seldom glanced at the art section of the paper, and most had never been near this museum. But a book—maybe it would go the way of most books and wind up on the remainder table at the bookstore or it could be a best seller. It only took one person to recognize him in these pictures and he could kiss his career goodbye.

"Wow," said a voice behind him. "These are quite…quite"

Tony turned to see Ziva standing a few feet behind him. She was looking at the sketches and her eyebrows arched as she saw the photographs. "Quite what, Ziva?" he asked.

She smiled at him, "Quite lovely...however, I think you are better looking now."

The elderly painter looked at Ziva and began sketching. Tony grabbed the sketch pad. "Oh, no you don't"

The painter grabbed the pad back. "Artemis, I think, the goddess of the hunt. Or the queen of the Amazons."

Tony had to smile at that. Ziva's expression was one of frustration. " I can kill you a dozen ways with that sketchpad…."

"But she won't," interrupted Tony.

The painter's pencil was moving rapidly. He changed pages. As Tony watched, a portrait of Ziva emerged. She was wearing a tunic and carrying a bow. The painter had captured her strength and her beauty. He smiled at the painter, "But she has not signed any release form. I don't think she will."

But she surprised him. "Why not? It is a beautiful drawing."

Tony said, "You have your clothes on. That one of me, not so much. And those photographs—I look like-"

She broke in, "Like a Greek god. But, I can see why you might not want everyone in the world to see you like that."

"Like what?" he asked.

"Usually, Tony," she said, "you hide your feelings, but these pictures show the real you—you're not just physically naked in that one." She pointed to a photograph in which he was gazing at something far away with a look of longing. "This one shows your vulnerable side."

This was too much for Tony. "I don't have a vulnerable side. When McGee sees these, I'll never hear the end of it. And Gibbs..how can I ever look him in the face again?"

He looked at the photographs again. They weren't porn. There was a lot of artistic merit there. Maybe if he didn't act embarrassed about it, embraced it and heck, even celebrated it, he could endure the teasing he expected. He could buy the t shirt for McGee. Probie would blush and stammer in an entertaining way.

And who didn't have some embarrassing thing in their past? OK, McGee had probably never done anything outside of the Boy Scout motto, thought Tony.


End file.
